


One Thing at a Time

by buckysbears (DrZebra)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 4x15 coda, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Spoilers for the last episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 14:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9904343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrZebra/pseuds/buckysbears
Summary: "Things aren’t going to be okay just because you believe hard enough. You can’t wish or hope your way out of this. Your do-gooder pluckiness isn’t going to save us this time, okay? It’s not.”“What do you want me to do?” Daisy asks, voice not as hard as it has a right to be. “You want me to just give up?”“I want you to stop being so bloody optimistic for just one second and just- just let me be scared, okay? Let me mourn for us, because you’re clearly not going to. Usually I appreciate the optimism but I can’t handle that right now, so just …” She waves her hand, still not quite looking at her. She can’t stand to see the look on Daisy’s face, whatever it may be.-rewrite of that skimmons scene bc GAY BUT COULD BE GAYER





	

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this post](http://pizza-is-my-buziness.tumblr.com/post/157606752983/guys-lets-be-honest-im-sure-that-the-original#tumblr_notes) which I was so graciously given permission to write. it's angstier than the original post had in mind but hey it's me 
> 
> anyway how gay was that episode huh!! did yall see them holding hands !!!

“So we fight our way through the trained military personnel, then the ultra-powerful android doubles of our friends, somehow make it to the Zephyr—which we can’t fly—to escape the base, and try to plug our minds into an alternate reality.” Jemma feels dizzy just saying all of it, and it’s probably not just the head wound.

“Okay, well.” Daisy makes a little defeated expression, then it clears. “Don’t say it out loud, because that made it sound way worse. Let’s just keep it one thing at a time, okay?”

“Daisy.” Jemma’s head falls back to rest on the wall behind her. Her head, leg, and heart are pounding. And not even all at the same time, which she feels would be more forgiving. Instead it’s an unsteady _thump-thump-thump_ , like a series of small explosions. She’s nauseated by it. By all of this. “Daisy,” she murmurs again, not sure what else to say. And then, on the edge of a sob, “They’re going to kill us. And I- I can’t lose you too—”

“Hey.” Daisy crouches down in front of her, resting a hand on Jemma’s leg, far from the stab wound. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No,” Jemma practically shouts, then immediately quiets, worried that someone will hear. “No, Daisy, it won’t be. We’re outnumbered, outgunned—you don’t even have your gauntlets to protect your arms. I don’t see a way out of this for us. Things aren’t going to be okay just because you believe hard enough. You can’t wish or hope your way out of this. Your do-gooder pluckiness isn’t going to save us this time, okay? It’s not.” Jemma knows she’s being mean. She’s scared. Terrified out of her mind. And the only person in the world she has right now is Daisy, and she’s being mean. To the one person … She takes in a shaky gasp, looking away, more tears dripping down her face.

“What do you want me to do?” Daisy asks, voice not as hard as it has a right to be. “You want me to just give up?”

“I want you to stop being so bloody optimistic for just one second and just- just let me be scared, okay? Let me mourn for us, because you’re clearly not going to. Usually I appreciate the optimism but I can’t handle that right now, so just …” She waves her hand, still not quite looking at her. She can’t stand to see the look on Daisy’s face, whatever it may be.

“Fine.” Daisy slumps down next to her, their shoulders touching. Jemma hears her blow out a sharp breath before she continues, voice brittle, “You don’t think I’m scared too? You don’t think I’m just as scared shitless as you are? Because I am. But that’s not going to help us right now. I’m just trying to help.”

“I know,” Jemma breathes. She reaches over and laces her fingers with Daisy’s. The hold is loose at first, but then Daisy squeezes tighter. “I know.”

There are tears in Daisy’s voice when she responds, “So maybe we are going to die. Maybe- Maybe we are. But … I can’t think like that right now. I can’t die here. I have too many regrets, too many things I haven’t said, to die here.”

Jemma turns her head to look at her. “You’re always going to have regrets, Daisy. That’s part of what makes us human. More than those machines.”

Daisy doesn’t look at her, her eyes far away. “I should’ve …”

“What?” Jemma prods gently.

Daisy’s eyes snap over to her, then she shakes her head. “No, it’s- It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Daisy …” Jemma squeezes her hand. “’Things left unsaid’, and all that, right? We’re probably going to die here, you might as well get it off your chest while you can.”

Daisy swallows hard, eyes glistening with tears. She opens her mouth, closes it, and then pushes out a shaking breath. “I should’ve …” She blinks, and two tears cascade down her face. “I should’ve told you how I feel about you.”

Jemma freezes. This feels achingly familiar, yet oh so different. “What?”

Shaking her head, Daisy pulls her hand away. “No, this is stupid, I knew I shouldn’t’ve—”

“Daisy.” Jemma quickly catches her hand. “Don’t stop there. Please.”

The desperation must’ve leaked through to her voice, because Daisy looks a little startled. She stares, then wets her lips. “I- I should’ve told you sooner. When we weren’t in this mess. But then again, when aren’t we in a mess, you know?” She lets out a breathless chuckle. “It just never felt like the right time.”

“Now is going to have to do,” Jemma tells her.

“I—” Daisy’s eyebrows pinch together, and she gazes at Jemma, then looks away. She brings their conjoined hands up to her face, resting her forehead against the back of Jemma’s hand. Then she takes a deep breath, letting it drop, rubbing her thumb over Jemma’s fingers. She looks down at their hands as she says, “I love you, Jemma. I know I’ve said it before, but I don’t think you really got what I meant.”

“Daisy—”

“I’ve loved you for a long time, but things were always in the way and I- I never knew how you felt, and there was Fitz, and so I just didn’t say anything. Well, I did, but- I didn’t make myself clear. What I really meant. How I really felt. About you.”

Daisy still isn’t looking at her, so Jemma lets her gaze wander as well, trying to process. This should make her feel worse, shouldn’t it? This confession on the brink of death? Why does her chest feel lighter? Why does she feel … braver? This isn’t playing like last time. Her gaze lands on something on a shelf at the front of the room. Is that—

“Sleeping gas,” she murmurs.

Daisy finally looks at her, confusion playing clearly on her face. “What?”

Jemma stands, leaving Daisy on the floor. Her leg aches, but she can barely feel it. “Sleeping gas,” she repeats. “There are tanks of sleeping gas in here. And we have the antidote. We can gas the agents and wake them up as needed.”

Daisy struggles to her feet. “What are you saying?”

Jemma turns back to her, eyes blazing. “I’m saying we fight.”

She’s being watched carefully, but she meant it.

“I’ve survived before,” she continues. “Impossible, impossible things, I’ve survived. And now I have you. I have you. What’s stopping me now?”

Daisy lets out a huff of disbelief, her mouth drawing into a smile. “Are you serious?”

“Serious as the grave,” Jemma says, and okay, maybe that wasn’t funny.

“So we’re actually doing this?”

Jemma grabs Daisy’s hand, brings it up to her mouth to hide her slightly-manic grin. “We are.”

“We’re fighting?”

“And winning.”

Daisy’s smile widens into a grin. “Okay. Okay, yeah, fuck it, let’s do this.”

“But first—” Jemma leans forward and kisses her—not like she’s wanted to, not like she’s imagined sometimes when she can’t sleep, or how she imagined they might meet again after Daisy had left—it’s a simple kiss. Chaste. But it’s enough. Leave her wanting more.

Daisy releases a breath as Jemma pulls away, eyes shut and still not opening.

“We get through this, they’ll be more where that came from,” Jemma says.

Daisy blinks her eyes open, her pupils blown. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“So I’m gonna beat the screws out of those junkers, and the two of us are gonna get the hell out of Dodge.”

Jemma nods. “Sounds like a plan if I’ve ever heard one. Oh, and Daisy?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too.”

Daisy smiles.


End file.
